GM ☕
I’m 36 and I’ve made every money mistake you can make.
Bought a car I couldn’t afford at 24.
Tried to time the market at 27.
Lost money on “sure things” at 29.
Lifestyle inflation killed me from 30 to 33.
Here’s what actually worked:
Boring index funds.
Automatic transfers.
Living below my means.
Keeping more than I spent.
You don’t need to be smart.
You don’t need to be lucky.
You don’t need to start rich.
You just need to start.
And never stop.
@BrianFeroldi On a $4,000/month salary:
Save 2.5% → millionaire in 45 years
Save 25% → millionaire in 25 years
Same income. 20-year gap. The savings rate is the only variable that actually moves.
@CoachBuiltLeadR i'd be honest with her: 'they can afford it. they just chose other things first. that's the most important money lesson most kids never get told.
@TedPillows Cash. That's where it sits in every panic. 2008 recovered in 4 years, 2020 in 5 months, 2022 in 11 months. The money doesn't actually go anywhere. The smart buyers keep buying the same markets everyone else is dumping.
A friend asked me last week why his car insurance keeps going up every year.
He said: "I've been with them 9 years. Shouldn't I get a loyalty discount?"
I told him to call them and threaten to leave.
20 minutes later, they reduced his premium from €490 to €380 a year.
A €110 saving from one phone call.
9 years of loyalty had cost him around €990 in unnecessary premiums.
This is what nobody teaches you growing up:
Negotiation is the cheapest skill you can learn and the highest-paid one you'll ever own.
The same logic applies to:
→ Phone contracts
→ Energy bills
→ Internet providers
→ Bank accounts
→ Even gym memberships
The system rewards new customers, not loyal ones.
Spend one Sunday a year renegotiating every recurring bill.
The average household saves €600 to €1,200 in 4 hours of phone calls.
That's a €200/hour Sunday job.
When was the last time you picked up the phone and asked for a better deal?
A €10 lunch every workday will quietly cost you €312,000 over the next 30 years.
That's not a guess.
That's what happens when you do the numbers.
→ €10 a day, 5 days a week = €2,400 a year
→ Over 30 years, you'll spend €72,000 on lunches you can't remember
→ The same €2,400 a year invested at 7% becomes €312,000
You're not buying lunch.
You're trading a future you could have lived for one you'll barely remember.
I'm not saying never buy lunch.
I'm saying know what every "small habit" actually costs you over a lifetime.
A few more, over the same 30 years:
→ €4 daily coffee: around €125,000
→ €30 monthly subscription: around €36,000
→ €60/week eating out: around €378,000
→ A new phone every 2 years: around €55,000
The wealthy aren't doing anything extreme.
They just understand that nothing is "small" once you multiply it by 30 years.
Same salary.
Two completely different lives.
Wealth is built on every small no you had the patience to say.
Not the big yes you'll remember.
When I was 29 I got a €4,200 bonus.
I told myself I'd "treat myself a little and save the rest."
Here's what actually happened:
€800 weekend in Mykonos
€1,100 watch I wore 3 times
€600 on stuff I can't even remember
€700 on a kitchen gadget
€1,000 "saved"
Six months later the €1,000 was gone too. Got absorbed into normal life.
A €4,200 bonus left me with nothing.
So I built one rule for myself.
Every time I receive money I didn't expect, most of it goes into investments the same day.
The rest is mine to enjoy guilt-free.
A bonus doesn't make you rich.
Where you spend it does.
5 skills that will decide your child's life in 2040.
Not one of them is taught in school.
1. How to learn anything fast.
→ The world will change faster than any curriculum. The kids who learn quickly will out-earn the ones with the best grades.
2. How to use AI without being replaced by it.
→ AI is already taking entry-level jobs. The kids who learn to work with it now will be the ones still hired in 10 years.
3. How to ask for what they're worth.
→ A confident negotiation at 22 is worth around €180,000 over a career. Most adults never learn it. The wealthy teach it at the dinner table.
4. How to handle money before they have any.
→ The habits formed at 14 will quietly run their adult bank account at 44. You can't fix at 30 what was missed at 12.
5. How to stay calm when everyone else is panicking.
→ The most underrated skill of the next 30 years. It will decide more outcomes than intelligence ever has.
Schools teach the past.
Parents teach the future.
Every dinner table is a classroom.
What are you teaching your kid this year that school never will?
@SahilBloom got a big raise. didn't change how i lived for 3 years. saved every cent of the difference. that was the only 'investment in myself' that ever paid me back.
@sparkwithinqn true. you can be the hardest worker in the room and still be the broke one. nobody tells you that what you keep matters more than what you earn.
@TrilionaireMind Right. Markets recovered: → 2008 crash: market fully recovered in 4 years → 2020 COVID: 5 months → 2022 correction: 11 months. Average investor return through those: -4% per year. The crashes weren't the problem — people selling during them was.